Helped subdue knife-wielding patient at Centenary hospital

Print

E-mail

Text

Robert McColeman was filling out paperwork on a patient at Rouge Valley Health System's Centenary site when he heard a commotion at the back of the emergency department.

"A nurse came out from one of the patient care rooms and stated that her patient had escaped from her," the 28-year veteran paramedic recalled of the April 16 incident. "Another nurse stated that this individual was down in the nurses' lounge."

McColeman, 49, walked over to the lounge and saw a naked psychiatric patient trying to stab himself with a knife. Moments earlier, the 19-year-old tried to jump through the window but bounced off the glass and hit a microwave.

McColeman stood in the doorway to ensure the teen didn't leave the room and yelled for him to put the knife down. "My concern was for public safety," McColeman said. "I put myself between him and the staff and the public."

A police officer arrived 90 seconds later and pepper-sprayed the patient, who slit his own throat and stabbed himself in the stomach.

McColeman, the officer and hospital security then subdued the teen and got him onto a stretcher. "He was wheeled into the resuscitation room and from there into the operating room," McColeman said. "He survived."

On Sept. 25, McColeman was honoured with the prestigious N.H. McNally Award for his brave actions at Centenary.

"I'm very proud of him," McColeman's wife, Christine, said. "It was something above and beyond the call of duty."�The award is named after Dr. Norman McNally, the father of Ontario's ambulance system.